The subject matter herein relates generally to methods for improving corrosion resistance and applications in electrical connectors.
Electrical conductors have many forms, such as a contact, a terminal, a pin, a socket, an eye-of-needle pin, a micro-action pin, a compliant pin, a wire, a cable braid, a trace, a pad and the like. Such electrical conductors are used in many different types of products or devices, including electrical connectors, cables, printed circuit boards, and the like. The metals used in the electrical conductors are susceptible to corrosion, diffusion or other reactions, limiting their use or requiring protective coatings. For example, when copper or copper alloy electrical conductors are used, such conductors are susceptible to corrosion. Corrosion of base metals is detrimental to the conductor interface and signal integrity. A gold surface layer is typically applied to the copper as a corrosion inhibitor. However, the gold surface layer adds expense to the electrical conductor.
Grapheme has shown to be promising in electronics devices as a corrosion resistance layer due to the conductivity and chemically stable nature of graphene. However, grain boundaries and other defects of the graphene layer are weak points vulnerable to corrosion attacks. The cost to manufacture large graphene grains, having less boundary area and fewer defects, are extremely high and time consuming to manufacture.
A need remains for an electrical conductor that addresses the aforementioned problems and other shortcomings associated with traditional electrical conductors.